India sees fastest domestic air passenger growth in 2015: IATA
India witnessed the fastest domestic air passenger growth at 18.8 per cent in 2015, way ahead of neighbouring China and the United States, according to IATA. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said airlines worldwide carried 3.6 billion passengers and 52.2 million tonnes of cargo worth $6 trillion last year. Among the world’s largest domestic aviation markets, IATA said India had the fastest domestic passenger growth in 2015. “With annual growth of 18.8 per cent (in a market of 80 million domestic passengers), India’s performance surpassed that of Russia (11.9 per cent growth, in a market of 47 million domestic passengers),” it said in a release. China witnessed 9.7 per cent growth in a market of 394 million domestic passengers while the US saw 5.4 per cent rise in a market of 708 million local fliers. Last year, carriers flew 3.6 billion passengers on scheduled services, an increase of 7.2 per cent compared to 2014. As per IATA, airlines in the Asia-Pacific region carried the largest number of passengers. In terms of regional ranking – based on total passengers carried on scheduled services by airlines registered in that region, Asia-Pacific had 34 per cent market share followed by Europe (26.2 per cent) and North America (24.8 per cent), among others. “Last year, airlines safely carried 3.6 billion passengers, the equivalent of 48 per cent of the Earth’s population and transported 52.2 million tonnes of cargo worth around $6 trillion.” “In doing so, we supported some $2.7 trillion in economic activity and 63 million jobs,” IATA’s Director General and CEO Tony Tyler said. American Airlines came on top in terms of total scheduled passengers carried, domestic as well as international. Others in the top five were Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, China Southern Airlines and Ryanair in 2015. Nathan Eovaldi Jersey
Reliance Industries seeks government nod to supply subsidised LPG
Reliance Industries has sought the government nod to distribute subsidised cooking gas to households in a bid to capture a fast-growing market where consumer base is targeted to expand by 60% in three years. Reliance Industries has recently written to the oil ministry expressing interest in distributing subsidised cooking gas to households, beginning with cities, officials said. The company has also requested the government to treat it on par with state distributors such as Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum on the subsidy front, they said. At present, only state-run companies distribute subsidised cylinders as the government doesn’t subsidise private players for selling cooking gas at lower than market rates. The oil ministry has now asked its wing, Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), to examine Reliance’s request, officials said. Reliance Industries declined to comment. With the implementation of direct cash transfer, the issue of subsidy is less complicated today. At present, the state companies first recover full price for the gas cylinder from consumers and then within days transfer the subsidy amount to the customers’ bank account. Within a month, the government reimburses companies for the total subsidy transferred. More than one crore consumers have already given up cooking gas subsidy in the country while many others with an annual income of more than Rs 10 lakh — numbers haven’t yet been declared by the government — have been barred from receiving the subsidy. For private players, this offers a ready market where non-subsidised consumers seek better services. But Reliance’s plan is not to restrict itself to just these customers. If it gets government nod to distribute subsidised cooking gas, or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), it can trigger a bitter battle for market share in cities long dominated by state companies. Domestic LPG consumption rose 6.6% in May, nearly 45% of which was imported. State companies have a target to add 10 crore LPG consumers in three years to the current active base of 16.7 crore consumers as part of the government drive to take clean fuel to every corner of India. Most of the new customers will come from the interiors of the country and the companies need to set up new bottling plants and draft thousands of distributors to serve them efficiently. Bigger cities are, meanwhile, shifting from LPG to piped gas for their cooking fuel, although the pace is much slower than the one seen in the adoption of LPG cylinders. The biggest incremental requirement of LPG in future would therefore come mainly from smaller towns and rural areas. Mario Kempe Womens Jersey
New National Highway along Godavari banks
The State government proposed a new National Highway along the banks of the Godavari, from Badrachalam to Kautala adjoining Maharashtra via Kaleshwaram temple, covering a distance of 370 kilometres, said Minister for Roads and Buildings T. Nageshwara Rao. Speaking after laying the foundation stone for high-level bridges across Mulavagu rivulet at Vemulawada temple town at a cost of Rs. 28 crore as part of the beautification of the temple shrine, the Minister said that they have ordered for a detailed project report (DPR) for laying of new National Highway covering major irrigation projects of Kaleshwaram in Karimnagar district. He said that the new NH would benefit Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh. He said the bridge across the Godavari, connecting Kaleshwaram to Sironcha in Maharashtra constructed at a cost of Rs. 200 crore, would be completed within a month. The Bornapalli bridge in the district would be completed in seven months. Stating that they have taken up a total of 46 bridges in Karimnagar district at a cost of Rs. 300 crore, Mr. Rao said that they were also constructing check dams at the bridges to store water and recharge ground water level in the region. The government has taken up four-lane works from district headquarters to Hyderabad city, and is making the roads of all mandals double-lane. He said that Telangana state has emerged a role model in the country with the implementation of the Mission Kakatiya and Mission Bagheeratha programmes. The people who took the State lightly are now shocked to see the progress on all fronts, he maintained. Later, the Minister participated in the Haritha Haaram programme by planting a sapling at the Government Junior College in the temple town. Minister for Finance and Civil Supplies Etala Rajender said that the Haritha Haaram would be taken up on a grand scale from July 8 to 15 to take up massive plantation to protect the environment. Earlier, Mr, Rao and Mr. Rajender offered prayers at Sri Raja Rajeshwara Swamy devasthanam. The temple authorities accorded a warm welcome to the Ministers and presented them with prasadam and a portrait of the temple. Karimnagar MP B. Vinod Kumar, Vemulawada legislator Ch. Ramesh Babu, TSCOB chairman K. Ravinder Rao, and Vemulawada sarpanch Uma were also present. Curtis Riley Womens Jersey
Policy to scrap old vehicles submitted to finance ministry: Gadkari
Looking to get nearly 28 million over-11-year-old polluting vehicles off country’s roads, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has submitted the vehicle policy to the finance ministry to seek approval. The proposed ‘Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernisation Plan (V-VMP)’ provides incentives worth 8-12 percent of the cost of a new vehicle in lieu of surrendering the old ones. “I have submitted the vehicle scrapping policy to the finance minister. It is a good policy and we will take it to the cabinet once it is approved,” Road Transport and Highways Minister Gadkari said.The policy is good for environment and is in the interest of the government, he said.The benefits under the proposed voluntary vehicle modernisation policy will come in three forms — scrap valuefrom the old vehicle, a special discount by the automobile manufacturer and a partial excise duty exemption. Inviting comments from general public and all stakeholders on the draft policy, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has said the ‘Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernization Plan (V-VMP)’ will be applicable to the vehicles bought on or before 31 March 2005. “The total potential vehicles to be replaced with this definition are nearly 28 million,” as per the draft policy. Under the scheme, people surrendering their old vehicles and buying new one are likely to receive three benefits amounting to 8-12 percent of total cost of the new vehicle, the ministry has said. To ensure that the resultant impact is beneficial to the environment, the replacement vehicle needs to be BS-IVcompliant, which is going to be rolled out nation-wide by April 2017.The draft policy said that it is expected to boost sales of automobile manufacturers leading to higher productioncapacity utilisation and the automobile manufacturers would support the government in this initiative “financially by giving special discounts to customers buying vehicles under this scheme”. Gadkari had earlier said the policy will boost automobile industry turnover over four-times to Rs 20 lakh crore in the next five years. Subject to approval from the Ministry of Finance, it has been proposed that vehicles bought under this scheme may get up to 50 percent excise duty relief based on old vehicle and replacement vehicle category. In addition, SRTU (state road transport undertaking) buses may be given complete excise exemption to ensure higherparticipation and modernise State’s bus fleet. Carlos Lee Jersey
Increase in road traffic has led to decrease in Railway income: Nitin Gadkari
Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, on Wednesday said that an increase in road traffic has led to decrease in Railway income. Speaking at the CNBC-TV18 Auto Summit, Gadkari said people prefer to commute by vehicles due to better roads and good roads are an advantage to the auto industry. Speaking on electric vehicles, Gadkari said that he was confident electric vehicles will be a success story. He urged the auto industry to manufacture more electric vehicles. “I think if the prices come down, electric cars will do well. We need to focus on research for electric vehicles,” Gadkari said. [Related-Post] Gadkari said that it is the right of the government to impose a diesel levy. He went on to say that the Petroleum Ministry is working on a huge refinery in Madhya Pradesh. Speaking on Make in India, Gadkari said, “Manufacturing in India is an incentive for all companies and the sector must accept international standards.” Gadkari said that his ministry has submitted a scrappage policy to the Finance Minister and promised to take up taxation issues too. Speaking on the policy front, Gadkari said that any industry must have a long standing policy. He said that the auto industry should give maximum potential for employment generation. Gadkari said that the Centre is giving Rs 900 cr every year to state governments to improve black spots. “In terms of road engineering & safety we are taking preventive measures,” Gadkari added. Speaking on heavy traffic on major roads across various cities in India, Gadkari said that his ministry has already asked an IT company to research the cause of traffic jams. John Franklin-Myers Authentic Jersey
Maharashtra plans $10 billion infra fund
In what Maharashtra claims will be a game changer, the state is planning a whopping $10-billion fund, which would be used for building infrastructure in rural areas of the state and specifically in Mumbai. The move to create this Infra Fund comes after the state has struggled to create new infrastructure because of the huge debt of Rs 3.30 lakh crore. The state is also planning to use the money from this fund to ease the state’s debt. The move to create this Infra Fund comes after many countries like Saudi Arabia, Japan, Germany, Israel and Canada expressed keen interest on investing in the state. Some of these countries have also sought sovereign guarantee to safeguard their investment. The state is in talks with the Centre on whether the latter could give a ‘comfort letter’ for specific projects. Maharashtra government officials are optimistic that the fund would be set up within the next three months. “Talks have been going on for the last four to five months. Many countries like Saudi Arabia, Japan, Germany, Israel and Canada to name a few, have expressed keen interest to invest in the state. A few of these countries have also sought for sovereign guarantee to safeguard their investment.The state is in talks with the Centre on whether a ‘comfort letter’ for specific projects could be given,” said a senior state government official. Last month, Kaustubh Dhavse (officer on special duty), a key official in the Chief Minister’s office, who looks after the execution of key infra projects in the state travelled to Delhi where he met an official of Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) and other finance ministry officials to explore the possibility of the Centre giving such comfort letters. Cliff Pennington Jersey
‘Hope to get Irani’s help in boosting textile exports’: Texprocil
Industry body Texprocil today welcomed the appointment of Smriti Irani as the new Union Minister for Textiles and hoped to get her support in increasing exports and generating employment. The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil) also welcomed the appointment of Ajay Tamta as Minister of State for Textiles. Texprocil Chairman R K Dalmia said the industry hoped the special package recently approved by the Centre for the garment sector will be extended to the made-ups segment as well. He said with the Prime Minister’s focus on creating crores of jobs in the key sector in the next three years, Texprocil looks forward to receiving full support from the new ministers for making the industry more vibrant through increase in exports and generating employment. Joffrey Lupul Jersey
Time spent on apps more than doubles in past 2 yrs
India is rapidly moving into the mobile app age and is already the fourth largest mobile app economy. The amount of time Indians spend on apps has also increased dramatically, says mobile-app analytics company App Annie. In total app downloads per year, only China, US, and Brazil are ahead of India. The annual figure for India is projected to grow by 92% to reach 7.7 billion downloads this year, and further to 20.1 billion by 2020. China’s app download is expected to grow at a much slower 29% this year, but the absolute figure will be more than 6 times that of India’s at 49 billion. “With the introduction of affordable smartphones and better infrastructure supporting mobile, and given India’s population, the growth here is expected to be significant,” Junde Yu, MD of App Annie APAC, said. He said the most important thing that is now driving the app economy here is not the number of downloads or the revenue but just the amount of time spent by users on the mobile app. The amount of time Indians spent on apps in the first quarter of 2016 more than doubled compared to that in the first quarter of 2014. In retail apps, the time spent grew by 11.5 times during the same period, driven by e-commerce majors like Flipkart-Myntra, Amazon, and Snapdeal. The time spent on video streaming apps grew by 7.4 times, with YouTube and Hotstar leading the way. Speaking to TOI, Yu said, “People have this perception in India that users spend more time on browsers. That is not true. Our data shows that the percentage of time spent on apps in India is the same as around the world, at 93% (the remaining 7% comes from mobile browsers).” App Annie finds that over 25% of Android users in India use at least one ride-sharing app (those like Ola and Uber). This figure was the highest among all countries – in the US, UK, and Brazil, it is below 20%. “This was a little surprising. But I think India is a developing country so the users are finding the need to use these transport services more,” Yu said. Among ride-sharing apps, Ola is the most used and downloaded app, followed by Uber. In retail, e-tailing firms, who tend to have a mobile-first approach, led the way, quite a contrast to mature markets where brick-and- mortar and web-first players still have a big share. “Close to 75% of the top 10 mobile retail apps in India in both iOS and Google Play store have a mobile-first approach. In the US and UK, this number is only 10%,” Yu said. Flipkart was ahead of Amazon in India in terms of monthly active Android users in Q1 of 2016. However, in terms of app downloads in both Google and iOS app store, Amazon took the top slot for the same period. “Amazon can get ahead of Flipkart. Even in Japan, it is giving competition to homegrown player Rakuten,” Yu said. Asia Pacific is the biggest region in the global app economy, accounting for 50% of total global app downloads. Shawn Williams Authentic Jersey
Exit clause enters Indian startups
Higher the risk, better the reward and greater the uncertainty, bigger the insurance. What was earlier limited to foreign startups is now entering new-age ventures in India: Exit clause. Startup CEO/CXO candidates have begun pitching for specific exit clauses in employment contracts. And employers are responding positively. In a bid to safeguard the interests of such candidates, exit compensation packages are being drafted with great attention to detail. Executive search firms TOI spoke to said some CEO candidates are even roping in law firms for negotiating contracts with prospective employers. An HR head from one of the leading startups told TOI that in his career of over a decade, he had encountered only one case where a candidate insisted on specific exit clauses. It’s a phenomenon that exists in developed markets and is now said to be taking root in Indian startups, especially when valuations are falling. Several Indian startups have founder-CEOs, but as the ecosystem evolves, founders appoint professionals to take on critical roles. Jabong, Housing and Housejoy are among the startups who have hired professional CEOs. Factors such as friction between promoters and CEOs and private equity firms and CEOs have added to the cautiousness of senior executives being roped in for leadership roles in companies operating in high-risk industries. Suresh Raina, managing partner, Hunt Partners, said the executive search firm has seen candidates seeking counsel from compensation experts and law firms while negotiating employment contracts. “When a candidate takes over as challenging a role as CEO/CXO, expectations run high. Successful CEOs deliver the results, more importantly in the initial fast-growth phase. It has become common practice they expect to be suitably compensated for their work, either by way of stock and/or a share of the value creation, even if in challenging times they may not deliver the same kind of growth,” said Raina. CEO tenures, too, are reducing with added pressure on performance of new CEOs and senior leadership. “Candidates thus want to ensure they get a fair share of the success and wealth creation in case of an untimely exit,” said Raina. The trend is especially strong in the startup world where the risks are greater. Sunil Goel, MD, GlobalHunt India, said: “Given the risk attached to startups, CEO candidates are putting in exit clauses quantifying what non-cash benefits would be converted to cash in the event that the company terminates the contract with the CEO within a certain timeframe. We have seen a few high-profile exits in the startup world, either due to differences with promoters or private equity firms.” According to Shatrunjay Krishna, director-rewards, talent & communications practice, Willis Towers Watson, such instances usually take place when some change of control (M&As, etc) is anticipated. For example, in an industry going through consolidation or when a larger company is acquiring a smaller one, the CEO at the smaller company would want to protect his interests and retain critical executives by providing them lucrative severance conditions if the change of control happens. However, at such times, the CEO usually acts on behalf of the management. Sources said some CEO candidates have also individually approached boutique hiring firms to guard their interests in uncertain situations. K Sudarshan, managing partner, EMA Partners India, however, said he would not advise companies, especially startups, to incorporate such exit clauses. “Startups are a risk-reward game where candidates join with their eyes open and are aware of the risks involved,” he reasoned. Jack Johnson Womens Jersey
FDI in aviation: How Vistara, Air Asia India, Jet are affected
The government has clarified that the notification related to foreign direct investment (FDI) in aviation doesn’t impose restriction of management control with Indians in airlines where majority stake is vested with a foreign entity. However, existing airlines like Vistara, AirAsia India, Jet-Etihad and any future carriers with majority stake held by Indian entities will have to ensure that the substantial ownership and effective control (SOEC) rests with Indian nationals. The clarification from the civil aviation ministry came after the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) notified the changes in FDI policy in the sector, but maintained that no other changes in conditions had been made. This meant that despite a foreign entity holding 100% stake in an airline, it would have to ensure that SOEC rested with Indian nationals. However, speaking to FE, RN Choubey put the record straight, saying: “Foreign airlines will not control domestic airlines in case the majority is owned by domestic player.” He added that in case a foreign entity owns a majority stake in an airline, it will not be required to abide by ownership and control structure that requires it to be vested with Indian citizens. Jamie Langenbrunner Womens Jersey